Weaves Interview: “I’m Excited To Record A New Album”

Self Titled Debut Album Out Now Via Memphis Industries.

At Overblown, we’ve loved Canadian punks Weaves for quite a while now. So much so that we included them on our list of Ten Toronto Bands You Need To Know way back in summer 2014. We’ve been pretty damn psyched about their rise in the intervening period leading up to the release of their sometimes raucous, sometimes bizarre, and always entertaining debut self titled debut album. Then when we got wind of that fact they’d be touring the UK with fellow Toronto noisemakers Dilly Dally, we had to have a chat with them about it.

They were good enough to spend a little time talking about recording their debut album, surviving on the road, and a couple of tidbits about their upcoming second album.

Overblown: Your debut album is out now. You recorded the album with Leon Taheny who has worked with disparate artists like Dilly Dally, Owen Pallett, and Austra. What did his experience with a variety of bands and sounds bring to the album?

Weaves: I mean he has been around for a long time. I have recorded with him many times including with my previous band Rattail. He is the master of beautiful drum sounds and a great engineer overall. I guess his working with all the bands listed shows you how long he has been around and how many people trust him when recording their music.

O: The music you had released up to the album was quite eclectic. For the album, did you want to refine this into a more coherent sound or let your freak flag fly?

W: I don’t think there was a certain notion of being particularly cohesive in that every song on the record is unique. But the cohesive element to all of our songs has been always been my voice, I think. We want are music to not be boring and we want to express ourselves without compromise so in that way our sound is eclectic.

O: I love ‘Coo Coo’. What inspired that track musically?

W: Thanks! I guess living life inspired the song. It’s started as a vocal loop. So I layered my vocals to create a melody and then just started figuring out the lyrics. Then we started jamming and everything fell into place.

O: You recently performed four songs at Low Four at Manchester’s historic Old Granada Studios. How did you get involved in that and what was the experience like?

W: It was really fun! Not sure who spoke to whom about it but it was a great experience.

O: You recently released a cover of ‘Help’ by The Beatles. It’s quite different from the original. Was it daunting to cover them? Were you tempted to do a straight up cover?

W: It was just something we recorded over two hours last Summer. There was no pressure because we never really thought we’d put out that cover. I just was having a hard time last summer and Help spoke to me so I wanted to have a try singing it.

O: You’ve been on the road pretty much non stop since March. How are you surviving?

W: Barely. Ha! No it’s been fun and we’ve been able to travel to a lot of different places on the road which has been awesome. But I am very excited to sleep in my bed for more than three nights and also record a new album.

O: You’ve got an upcoming tour of the UK with Dilly Dally. Do you feel proud that you can go out together and represent the frankly wonderful Toronto music scene?

W: Yeah it’s great. We are currently on tour with them just leaving Milan, Italy and it’s been a lot of fun so far. Our bands are kind of differently stylistically but it makes for well rounded nights of music.

O: What’s the Weaves plan for the rest of the year after you finish up the UK tour?

W: Writing the next record! I’ve been inspired by words lately and have been starting to write a track-listing before the songs have been made. But I think I know what direction I want the album to go in and honestly traveling and meeting people from around the world has been very inspiring.

Jamie Coughlan is the founder of Overblown. He talks a lot about himself and is totally pretentious. Terrible with personal finances. Loves beer gardens. He has written for the RTE Guide, A Music Blog, Yea?, The Thin Air, Gigwise, and is a contributor to The Tipping Point.

Overblown is all about subterranean music. We aim to champion bands and record labels that we are passionate about and are overlooked and undervalued by the mainstream media machine, while still paying homage to the iconic bands and labels who laid and developed the groundwork for today’s emerging talent. Whether it is post punk, shoegaze, sludge metal, noise rock, or anything in between, we want to bring these alternative music genres to the fore.